


Innocent's Prayer

by Eikaron



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Angst, BAMF Lucifer, But with a happy ending, Canon Divergence, Caring Lucifer, Chloe finds out, Chloe is coping, Drama, F/M, Face Reveal, Gen, Identity Reveal, Sort Of, Therapy, Violence, Wing Reveal, Wings, early season 3 ish, grasshoppers, school shooting, terrifying Lucifer, wing healing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-06-10
Packaged: 2019-05-13 20:45:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 17,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14756018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eikaron/pseuds/Eikaron
Summary: “Well, I guess you could always pray to me”“And you’ll come save me?”“I suppose I would, Child”When a shooter targets Trixie's school she prays to the only person who can save her. This has consequences for all of them.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> CONTENT NOTE: It's in the summary already, but I thought I'd say it again. This story deals with a school shooting, which is a touchy topic at the moment and includes (implied) death of non-show characters, violence & graphic description of wounds. It has a happy ending, but proceed at your own peril.
> 
> As for the time line - it's set somewhere in a canon divergent season 3. Definitely after S03E06 ("Vegas with some radish") but not super specific apart from that
> 
> ETA: Minor Edits for weapon terminology.

 

_So we say with confidence,_  
_“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid._  
_What can mere mortals do to me?”_

_(Hebrews 13:6, NIV)_

_\-------------~-------------_

Then _…_

_“Lucifer! Look! I got a phone! Mommy got me a phone! Now I can snapchat with my friends!” The offspring was bouncing up and down excitedly, waving something lime green in Lucifer’s face._

_“Detective! It seems like you have seen sense after all!”, said Lucifer with an appreciating smirk – after having dodged the erratically moving electronic device and moved out of Trixie’s reach._

_“Can I have your number?”, asked Trixie._

_“Whatever for, child?”, Lucifer asked back, wearing a genuinely bewildered expression._

_“Trixie, honey, maybe Lucifer doesn’t want to give out his number”, Chloe suggested carefully, although privately she thought he could quit being a clueless dick for once and simply give out his number._

_“For when I need to call you?”, Trixie told Lucifer, speaking very slowly. “You’re my friend and you’re mommy’s partner, so I should have your number for when I’m in trouble. Maze, I need your number too!” She beamed at the demon._

_“Well, duh!”, said Maze, took the phone from Trixie’s hands and immediately typed it in. “And if you’re in trouble, Trix, you call me. Not this useless idiot” She jerked a thumb towards Lucifer. “Got it?” _

_“I beg your pardon?”, said Lucifer, sounding mortally offended but both Trixie and Maze ignored him._

_“Well, duh_! _But what if you’re out bounty hunting and can’t come?”, asked Trixie. Maze conceded this with a nod and a fair-enough expression._

_“Oh, give me that! The Devil isn’t useless!”, interjected Lucifer gruffly, grabbed the phone and swiftly typed in his number._

_He missed the smug grin and wink Maze gave Trixie before she retreated to her room. Chloe simply shook her head but couldn’t entirely hide her smile._

_Lucifer had finished with Trixie’s phone and handed it back to the girl. It had taken fairly long, considering he had presumably just typed in a number, perhaps called himself, and Chloe made a mental note to make sure he hadn’t included any inappropriate social media contacts. That was, any social media contacts of his at all._

_“Though if you were in real trouble you’d probably not be able to use your phone anyway, that’s the trouble with trouble”, said Lucifer, fiddling with his cufflinks for the umpteenth time today._

_The little girl looked at him apprehensively._

_“What do I do then?”, Trixie wanted to know, before Chloe could tell Lucifer not to scare her daughter._

_Lucifer put his hands in his pockets and looked at the ceiling, pondering the question._

_“Well, I guess you could always pray to me”, he speculated._

_“Does that work?” Trixie frowned at him._

_“Of course it does. I used to be an angel, I can be prayed to. Can’t answer though, because you are not. Three guesses as to who came up with this moronic system”, he said and rolled his eyes._

_Chloe rolled her eyes too, albeit for a very different reason._

_“Trixie, this is not-“, she began but her daughter wasn’t listening._

_“So if I’m in trouble and I think about you really, really hard, you’ll hear me?”, she asked._

_“Yes, that is literally what I just said, child, aren’t you listening?”, said Lucifer somewhat gruffly._

_“And you’ll come save me?”, said Trixie timidly._

_Lucifer opened his mouth to say ‘no’ on principle, then shut it again and actually thought about the answer._

_“I suppose I would, Child”, he answered finally, to his own surprise._


	2. When I am afraid

  _When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.  
_ _(Psalm 56:3, NIV)_

_\-------------~-------------_

_Now…_

 

“Detective!”

Chloe turned her head upon hearing the familiar British accent, just in time to see her tall partner duck under the yellow tape and hurry towards her.

“What have we got?”, Lucifer asked eagerly as he surveyed the crime scene; a small park on the southern outskirts of L.A. and the body of a young Hispanic-looking man.

“Anthony González, 26. Three shots to the chest. Didn’t stand a chance”, said Ella, who was crouched next to the corpse.

“His wallet was found over there”, explained Chloe and pointed to a spot a few yards into the alley. “Driver’s license was still there but no money or credit cards, so we think mugging.”

Lucifer groaned.

“Well, that’s boring!”

“Excuse me for not providing you with a more interesting murder, Lucifer. I am so sorry”, said Chloe acidly but as usual the sarcasm was entirely lost on her partner.

“Apology accepted, Detective!”, said Lucifer merrily and absentmindedly scratched the back of his head. He kept feeling an odd tingling sensation near the base. Lucifer frowned. Distracted by Chloe and their new non-case it had taken him longer than normal to identify the cause: someone was praying to him intensely.

Lucifer considered simply ignoring it (Amenadiel could bloody well call him on his phone) but it wouldn’t let up, on the contrary: it got more persistent by the second, an irritating mental itch he was simply unable to tune out.

“A moment, Detective. There’s a call I have to take”, he said. Chloe looked at him curiously, seeing as she hadn’t heard his phone so much as vibrate and he hadn’t even taken it out.

Lucifer wandered off to the side, careful not to step into dried up blood. Hands in his pockets he tilted his head back and closed his eyes. Breathing evenly, he focused his attention inwards.

 _What do you want, Amenadiel_  

_…cifer can you hear me it’s trixie please i need you to come please please lucifer i’m scared he has a gun please come lucifer_

Lucifer gasped. His eyes flung open and it took him several blinks before he was mentally back at the crime scene, the force of the prayer having hit him like the proverbial ton of bricks. His gaze searched for Chloe and found her looking at him askance.

“Detective!”, he exclaimed loudly and strode back to her and Ella.

“Something wrong, Lucifer?”, asked Chloe and furrowed her brows when she saw his face. She should by all means be used to her partners antics by now, but he looked as if he’d seen a ghost. 

“Detective”, said Lucifer again. “We have to leave. Now.”

_please come i don’t want to die please help us lucifer if you can hear me please come_

“What? Why?”, asked Chloe, her frown deepening when she noticed how tense Lucifer had become. “We only just got here.”

“Yes, but your spawn is in danger!”, said Lucifer, internally cursing all the Heavens, Earth and Hell that Chloe still didn’t believe he was the devil. It would have made everything a lot easier.  “I don’t know what exactly is going on, but it involves a gun and we need to hurry!”

“Lucifer, what are you talking about? Is this supposed to be some kind of joke? Because it’s not funny!”, she said sternly, although her voice was wavering slightly.

“Detective, please. Your offspring is in grave and probably mortal danger right now and we need to LEAVE!”, he shouted, frantically trying to tug Chloe to his car.

 _you said i could pray to you lucifer please help please_  

“Whoa, whoa, Lucifer. Calm down”, said Ella, who had witnessed the exchange. “What’s happening?”

“Lucifer, what makes you think Trixie is in any kind of danger? She’s at school!”, Chloe tried to reason with him.

“I don’t know, Detective! But I… Look, I know it sounds crazy to you but she’s praying to me and she sounds very scared, we need to go to the school immediately!”, he shouted, the incessant yelling attracting the attention of Dan.

“What’s going on?”, the other detective asked sharply, putting away his notebook and coming over from where he had been interviewing a resident from across the street.

“Lucifer thinks Trixie is somehow in danger. He knows, because apparently she was praying to him”, said Chloe, rolling her eyes. As soon as Lucifer had mentioned ‘praying’ she had relaxed, although now she was worrying about different things. If he was hearing voices… 

“She still is!”, insisted Lucifer. “But she might not be doing it for much longer, if we don’t get a bloody move on!”

“What? That’s ridiculous! She’s at school”, scoffed Dan and looked at them incredulously.

_please come lucifer i’m scared please please i can hear him coming_

“I know you don’t believe me, Detective, but please! Just… trust me!", he beseeched her, but Chloe merely shook her head sadly and held up a hand. Dan looked from one to another.

_i don’t want to get shot lucifer_

“Lucifer, no. No. Look, this… this has gone way too far. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Trixie!”, she said and determinately crossed her arms. “Lucifer. You’re not hearing prayers, especially not Trixies’. You’re delusional and you need to get help.”

“You’re hearing voices, man?”, asked Dan with a concerned expression.

“Hey, it’s not like there’s anything wrong with that”, said Ella carefully. “I mean… it happens to a lot of people, right?” She and Lucifer exchanged a short glance, but he almost immediately turned his attention back to Chloe.

“Detective, I swear to you that Beatrice is in grave danger as of this moment and it is imperative that we get to her. Now.” Lucifer ran his hands through his hair erratically, for once not caring that he was messing up his styling.

_lucifer help us lucifer_

Chloe kept shaking her head, searching his eyes for any sign of a joke but finding only wild despair.

 

~*~

  

Lucifer was torn. His mind was racing. He had to make a decision. This was it. Either he showed his wings right then and there in front of everybody and convinced the detective and everyone else that he was indeed the devil or… damn, what if they panicked? Lucifer remembered Linda’s reaction all too well and while wings would certainly be less traumatic than his Devil Face there was no guarantee someone wouldn’t just start shooting at him. With Chloe here, this could easily end up fatal for him. Not to mention the time the humans were going to waste on explanations after his grand reveal. No, there was only one way to go. 

Lucifers’ eyes flashed to where his car was parked in a no-parking zone. All the other cars were a short walk away, on the other side of the park. He took the Corvette keys out of his pocket and tossed them to a startled Dan, who barely caught them. He fervently hoped that at least one of them knew how to drive with a gear stick.

“What…“

“You might need those”, was the only reason Lucifer offered, before he ducked under the tape and sped off, leaving his perplexed friends behind.

_you said you’d always come save me lucifer_

Lucifer sprinted behind a cluster of trees, away from prying eyes, and launched himself into the air. It was better like this anyway, he consoled himself. Without Chloe, he’d be bulletproof. And faster. It had sounded like the detective’s offspring was in dire need of both.

“Lucifer, wait!”, shouted Chloe, breaking out of her paralysis, and running after him but even though she’d skirted the large oak tree only seconds after he had, Lucifer was already gone and out of sight, leaving her gaping at an empty park.   

 

~*~

  

“Gone. Poof”, said Chloe, as she walked back to the others, throwing her hands up. “I don’t know how, but he’s gone.”

It had unsettled her much more than she wanted to admit. Even with the bushes and trees blocking her view she definitely should have been able to see him once she’d passed those, unless he’d suddenly taken off into the air. A nagging feeling of doubt was taking hold of her and she remembered the time the LAPD had attempted to arrest him for murder. Just like now, Lucifer had vanished in front of their very eyes. 

 “What was that all about?”, asked Ella when Chloe returned. “Why would he say Trixie’s in danger? I mean, I know he says crazy stuff all the time, but that’s not like him, is it?”

“I don’t know”, said Chloe and shook her head. Dan shrugged. Neither of them could quite hide that Lucifer’s even stranger than usual behaviour had rattled them.

“I’m sure she’s alright”, said Dan reassuringly to Chloe. “She’s at school.”

“What if she’s not?”, said Chloe, hardly believing the words were coming out of her mouth. Dan’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

“Don’t tell me you believe him, Chloe. That he heard Trixie pray? For real? Come on!”

“No, I know, but, Dan…” What if, what if, what if. The seed of motherly worry had been planted and it was rapidly sprouting roots. Her mind flashed back to Malcom Graham. “Look, I _know_ it’s bullshit, I know he’s delusional, it’s just-”, she flailed helplessly.

“His craziness is getting to you?”, asked Dan quietly. She nodded and her face flushed with embarrassment. Dan, standing there with his arms akimbo, sighed. 

 “Hey. I get it”, he said understandingly. “After what happened with Malcolm...” He shook his head.

“There have always been these… _weird_ things happening around Lucifer. Stuff I can’t explain”, Chloe went on, thinking back on all the times he had done something seemingly impossible.

“And Lucifer wouldn’t joke about Trixie getting hurt”, Ella said gingerly. She, too, was looking anxious now. “There’s no harm in checking, right?”, she ventured. 

“I’m just gonna call the school”, said Chloe. “It’s probably nothing, it’s probably just another one of his crazy episodes, but I’ll feel better after I’ve had an irritated secretary tell me that nothing is wrong.”

“Mum instincts, huh?”, commented Ella with a wry grin.

Chloe snorted and pulled out her mobile phone. With Dan and Ella watching her, she dialed the school’s number and waited.  And waited. And waited.

“No one’s picking up”, she said slowly and frowned.

“Try again in minute. The secretary’s probably just on a bathroom break”, said Dan, but he didn’t sound at all confident. His shoulders had tensed.

Ella, wrinkling her brows, pulled off her gloves and started to speedily type on her own phone. Chloe dialed the number again and again no one picked up. 

“Still no one”, she said. Her voice had taken on an edge. Suddenly she regretted the school’s strict policy on mobile phones not being allowed during class. At this time, she couldn’t call Trixie directly. Though if she wasgenuinely in danger…

“Chloe”, began Dan but was cut off by Ella. 

“Guys.” Her face had turned as white as a sheet. “Which school is Trixie going to?”, she asked, her voice trembling.

“Crawford Elementary & Middle School. Why?”, asked Dan nervously.

“Because I’m looking at the news and there is an active shooter at Crawford _right now._ ”

 

~*~ 

 

Since the day they had grown back Lucifer had refused to use his wings, had cut them off instead, thrown them away like trash, he’d cursed them and loathed them and hidden them away, but now he was beating them faster than he ever had before.

When he approached the school, the building was surrounded by police cars, ambulances and cameras. As far as he could see every single window shutter seemed to be down and a SWAT team was already gathered at a distance away from the equally closed front entrance. Their guns were trained on a window on the second floor, though they didn’t move closer.

The sound of a shot cut through the air.

Lucifer paid none of it any mind and headed for the rooftop. Being out of practice, he unfortunately severely misjudged his speed upon landing and almost crashed through it, rolling over twice before he managed to stumble back on his feet again. After standing up he immediately folded his severely ruffled wings and looked around wildly for a few seconds before he spotted a promising skylight. It wasn’t open, but this had never stopped Lucifer before. He went in, ignoring the shouts from below.

Inside the school it was eerily quiet. The corridors were lit, but as it had appeared from the outside, all the shutters were down, even the ones on the small windows in the classroom doors. The doors themselves were all shut as well.

The building was on lockdown.

With a killer inside. 

 

~*~

  

“Do you even know how to drive shift stick?”, asked Ella breathlessly, sprinting to the Corvette alongside Dan and Chloe.

“I used to”, said Chloe, nearly ripping open the glove compartment and grabbing the portable police light Lucifer had insisted on storing there. She carelessly slammed it on the hood. Dan threw himself into the passenger seat and held out the keys.

“Move over, chickie”, said Ella in a tone that did not leave room for discussions and grabbed the keys out of Dan’s hand. Chloe hesitated for a split second, then climbed over the console and squashed herself onto her ex-husband’s lap. He didn’t argue.

“You might wanna hold on”, warned Ella and fastened her seat belt. Chloe quickly held onto the side of the Corvette and exchanged an apprehensive glance with Dan. He gulped and wrapped his arms around her not a moment too soon.

The tires screeched brutally when Ella reversed the car and they took off towards Crawford at breakneck speed; accelerating under a flashing light and wailing siren.


	3. The Lord is my Light

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *squeee* You don't know how happy your many comments made me, my dear readers <3 <3 <3 I hope you like the next installment. 
> 
> CONTENT NOTE: Implied "off-screen" death of non-show characters, graphic descriptions of violence

_The Lord is my light and the one who saves me._  
_So why should I fear anyone?_  
_The Lord protects my life._  
_So why should I be afraid?_  
(Psalm 27, ICB)

_\-------------~-------------_

Lucifer crept through the hallway like a panther: silent and deadly. His eyes were burning crimson. He passed a classroom whose door stood slightly ajar. There was no sound at all coming from inside. Lucifer hesitated a moment before he gingerly opened the door, afraid of what he might find.

In Hell, Lucifer had seen blood and carnage almost 24/7, torture of all kinds, any single atrocity humanity managed to come up with and here, in L.A., corpses were an almost daily occurrence for him. He still felt sick to his stomach when he closed the door again.

Another shot followed by children screaming caught his attention. He broke into a run.

_please lucifer_

Lucifer swung around a corner and there was another door, closed like the others but he could hear a boy’s voice coming from the room.

“Who wants to go next? Come on, y’all gonna die anyway. What about you, you little shit, huh? You want me to shoot you next?”

“Kevin, don’t do this, please, they’re only children, please-”, pleaded a woman’s voice, her speech punctured with sobs.

He kicked in the door. 

 

~*~ 

 

The shooter startled and whirled around. It was a scrawny boy with dirty blond hair, no more than thirteen or fourteen years old. His face sporting pimples, a few hairs were growing on his upper lip. The rifle in his hands was pointing at Lucifer.

The boy stood before the teacher’s desk. Slumped in the chair behind him was the teacher, a middle-aged woman wearing a white blouse. It was drenched in blood. She was holding her shoulder while she tried to focus her eyes on Lucifer. The children meanwhile were cowering at the far end of the room, crouching under desks and near the wall with their arms wrapped around their heads, feebly trying to shield themselves. Some were crying, their eyes squeezed shut. Others were dead silent, frozen in fear, wide-eyed and terrified. 

“How the fuck did you get in here?”, the boy shouted angrily and then apparently decided that it didn’t matter. He pulled the trigger, emptying several rounds into Lucifer’s chest.

“Lucifer!”, cried someone.

The voice rang through the classroom even over the gunshots. Several children gasped. Lucifer merely grinned maliciously and walked through the door, nonchalantly brushing off his suit.

“Too bad. I’m immortal. You can’t kill me”, he growled.

The boys’ eyes widened, but he recovered remarkably fast, raising the rifle to aim at Lucifer’s head instead. He shot again and again, each and every bullet hitting Lucifer’s skull without so much as leaving a dent.

“What… what the hell are you? Why aren’t you dead?! Stop! Keep away from me!”, shrieked the boy, his voice breaking. He tumbled back until his back hit a wall, the hands holding the weapon trembling with fear.

“Oh no, you don’t get to ask me to stop, _Kevin_ , not after what you’ve done”, said Lucifer in a dangerously low voice as he was approaching the boy with slow, measured steps. His eyes were ablaze with hellfire.

Kevin’s mouth dropped open and his pupils dilated in abject terror, when he looked into the infernal depths, when he _saw_. He did the only thing he could think of: Kevin swung the rifle around, wavering like a madman, and pointed it at the children; his finger twitching at the trigger.

“I’ll shoot them!”, he blurted out. “If you come any closer, I’ll shoot them!”

“HOW DARE YOU!”

It was as if the whole room had suddenly been filled with Lucifer’s presence; his voice booming through the room, deep and dark and not from this world. A voice that made even the strongest demons bow down before their Lord, a voice having sinners quake in fear of things to come.

A pair of brilliant white wings burst from Lucifer’s back, slicing through a table and towering over a terrified Kevin. A shot cracked. 

“HOW DARE YOU!”

The bullet bounced off the glowing feathers and fell to the floor, harmless. Lucifer’s hand shot out and closed around the boy’s neck, his other one grabbing the rifle from unresisting hands.

“YOU WILL NOT. _HURT THEM_!”, he roared and lifted Kevin off his feet as if he weighed nothing more than a ball of cotton. A wingtip had shot to his throat, the razor-sharp feathers spread threateningly.

Lucifer wrapped his fingers around the barrel of the rifle and effortlessly crunched it between them, before tossing the weapon to the ground. He forcefully pressed Kevin against the wall, the boy’s feet dangling several feet in the air, and _squeezed_. Kevin’s face started to turn red, his hands clawing feebly at the one around his neck but to no avail.

“Tell me, Kevin”, whispered Lucifer in a honeyed voice. “ _Why_? Was this what you wanted? What did you desire? Tell me”

The boy’s eyes glazed over as he looked at Lucifer.

“I wanted to hurt all of them like they hurt me. They deserved to die”, he said. “Should have killed them right away, when I still had the chance.”

Lucifer felt a burst of wrath well up. His face flickered like a stroboscope and Kevin screamed and screamed and screamed. He didn’t know when or how or why his Devil Face had come back now, of all times, but he couldn’t have cared less. He _relished_ it. Lucifer snarled and pulled his screaming victim away from the wall.

“THEY WERE CHILDREN!”, he roared, pulled back and violently smashed him against it, hard enough to draw blood and knock the boy out cold.

Staring at the pale, bloodied face Lucifer felt sickened all of a sudden.

“People like you make me wish I was still in Hell”, he said quietly. He let the body fall to the ground abruptly. No matter how much he craved it right now, this was not the time for punishment. The adrenaline leaving him, Lucifer vanished his wings and opened a window instead.

“I’ve got him!”, he shouted down to the commotion below and, disgusted, picked up the unconscious body once more to hold him up for the cops to see. “I’ve apprehended the shooter, feel free to break in! And we’ll need a doctor!”, he added, remembering about the teacher.

“Lucifer!”

There had been just enough time to drop Kevin and turn around, when a small body propelled into his own and a crying Trixie wrapped her arms around him in a death grip.

“I knew you’d come”, she whispered against his stomach. 

“Child”, he said, putting his arms around her uncertainly. “It’s alright”, he said, but Trixie kept sobbing. She wasn’t the only one he realized. The sounds and smells he had pushed out of his mind before were rushing back all at once.

Children were crying.

The whole classroom was smelling of blood.

Lucifer looked at the teacher briefly, ascertaining that she had only been shot in the shoulder. From his experience the blood loss did not seem too severe. It was most certainly painful, but it would not be lethal. 

“Is it over?”, asked a pale redheaded boy with glasses in between sniffles. “Is Mrs. Gordon okay?”

Lucifer looked at the teacher, who was blinking at him owlishly with an open mouth. Her eyes were going in and out of focus.

“Are you an angel?”, she asked weakly.

“No”, said Lucifer simply, then turned back to the redheaded boy.

“Your teacher will be alright”, he said softly. “Yes, it’s over.” The children, though still shaken, were slowly starting to lift their heads and lower their arms. The tension had left the room.

“It’s alright, Child”, Lucifer said to Trixie, who was still sniffling into his shirt. He didn’t know what to do, but he’d seen Chloe comfort Trixie before, so he mimicked her; carefully tightening the hug and putting a hand on Trixie’s head. It seemed to help.

Then somebody screamed. 

“Daisy!”

They both startled. Trixie whipped her head around, letting go of Lucifer momentarily.

“Daisy is hurt!”, cried the boy from before and Lucifer suddenly noticed the cluster of children, crouched in obvious distress around something he couldn’t see.

With Trixie in his wake, he rushed over and dropped to his knees. His stomach lurched when he saw what the other children had been looking at. A tiny girl was lying in a pool of red on the floor, curled up and hidden behind glittery backpacks in a corner of the room, her braids spread out around her head like a halo. She was bleeding to death. 

One of her hands was clenched around the flesh wound in her abdomen, a fruitless attempt to stop the blood flow. It kept gushing out of her small body in rhythmic scarlet spurts, drenching the pink My Little Pony sweatshirt and Lucifer’s hands. 

“Alright”, he mumbled. “Back off, give her some space”, he said and gestured for the other children to retreat, then put his own, bigger hand on hers apace to apply more pressure. The spurting receded, but Daisy had barely whimpered at something that must have caused her enormous pain. This was not a good sign.

Trixie looked at him with a tear-stained face. She hadn’t left her unconscious friend’s side, kneeling next to her in a pool of drying blood.

“You have to do something, Lucifer”, she pleaded. “Please. She’ll die.”

She was right, Lucifer realized. It was too late. Daisy had lost too much blood. Already he could feel her soul start to detach itself from her body; in a minute it would be gone altogether. Even if paramedics were to appear right this second – only a miracle would be able to save her.

A miracle. 

Lucifer swallowed and closed his eyes. 

“Child”, he said. “There… might be something I can do. But you must not tell anyone, not even your mother. Can you promise me that?”

Trixie nodded. 

“I promise”, she said earnestly, choking down the last of her tears.

Lucifer nodded. He glanced around. The other children were watching them apprehensively. The room had gone completely silent.

He exhaled and slowly unfurled his wings one last time. Desks tumbled and the children gasped in awe.

Like in trance Lucifer lifted a bloodied hand and reached over his shoulder. He grasped one of the smallest flight feathers from his left wing and plucked it, suppressing a reflexive wince.

His vision had shrunk down to nothing but the little girl’s hand on the wound.

Lucifer carefully moved it aside and placed the feather on the gaping hole in Daisy’s body. For a dreadful second he feared it had been too late, but then the feather glowed brightly and sank into her dark skin. The blood flow stopped at once and slowly, the wound started to heal. 

 

They watched silently as the bullet buried in her flesh emerged bit by bit, until it fell to the floor with a metallic ping resonating through the quiet room. Still faintly glowing, the skin closed itself until it looked like there had never been any injury at all.

Daisy’s chest started to visibly rise and fall, her breathing changing from a barely audible panting to the slow, even breaths of a deep sleep.

Lucifer let out a sigh of relief of his own and vowed to never tell Amenadiel about this.


	4. Those Who Mourn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is super short, so it's a 2-for-1 today. Though I'm afraid no children will be interviewed. They were all just imagining things anyway :p

_The lowly he sets on high,_  
_and those who mourn are lifted to safety_  
(Job 5:11, NIV)

\-------------~-------------

   

Everything had become a blur. 

The SWAT team had broken down the doors and secured the perimeter. Now the regular cops were storming in to arrest fourteen-year-old Kevin Norton for manslaughter, being followed by a swarm of paramedics.

An unconscious Mrs. Gordon was being wheeled away on a gurney and so was Daisy. Parents were pouring into the school, crying and hugging their kids. Some of them were babbling about an angel saving them, but by virtue of being children who had just gone through an incredibly traumatic experience they were not being taken seriously. 

A cop came to take away the murder weapon, looking wide-eyed at the squashed barrel, another tried to take Lucifer’s statement of what had happened, calling him a hero over and over again. Lucifer barely even listened, let alone answered. They put it down to shock and agreed to question him later.

Someone accidentally pushed him into the corner of the teacher’s desk and it hurt more than it should.

Trixie’s hand was clasped tightly around Lucifer’s, but for once he didn’t mind.

“Excuse me”, Lucifer said to the cop. “We need to go.”

He looked down at Trixie and told her: “Your parents are here.”

Trixie didn’t ask how he knew. She simply followed him out of the classroom, never letting go of his hand. When she stumbled because his strides were too long for her, he picked her up and carried her easily; the girls’ legs clinging to his torso and the arms wrapped around his neck as if it were a life belt. Lucifer held her securely, using one arm to support her legs and embracing her with the other, his hand resting lightly on the back of her head. Trixie buried her face in his shoulder.

 

~*~

 

Chloe barely waited for the car to stop until she jumped out, not even bothering to open the door and she neither registered Dan following her nor Ella staying back to park somewhere that was not the middle of the street, although it hardly made a difference in the chaos around them. 

“Trixie!”, shouted Chloe, moving recklessly through a crowd of medics, cops and scared parents, Dan hot on her heels. “Monkey, where are you?!”

They reached the entrance and Chloe stopped dead in her tracks when she saw them.

“Trixie, my god, Trixie!”, she cried, her hands flying to her mouth. Tears were welling up in her eyes.

“No”, said Dan breathlessly, pushing past another nameless, faceless person in his way, feeling like his heart had stopped. Stopped and broken into a million billion pieces tearing him apart

Lucifer was walking down the steps, wearing an uncharacteristically somber expression and carrying Trixie in his arms. Her jeans and Lucifer’s hands were full of blood.

 

~*~

 

“Mommy? Daddy?”

Trixie turned her head to look at her parents and Chloe sobbed with relief.

“Monkey!”

“She’s alright, Detective”, said Lucifer, carefully setting Trixie down, who flung herself into the arms of her crouched-down parents.

“I’m so glad you’re okay, monkey”, said Dan and hugged Trixie tightly, his voice strained from his effort not to break into tears.

“I was so worried, honey”, said Chloe, with another sob.

“Right”, said Lucifer awkwardly.

The devil was suddenly feeling very tired and out of place among the familial displays of affection. Chloe and the Douche were here, their spawn was safe and the lowly scum who had tried to hurt her was on his way to where he belonged for the time being: a place where Lucifer would have easy access later on. This was all that mattered.

Right now, he wanted nothing more than a Scotch, a shower and fresh clothes, so when Lucifer saw Ella Lopez heading towards them, he decided to take his leave. Unnoticed, he slipped away, worming his way through gaggles of journalists and concerned neighbours.

Once he had made his way past the ambulances, Lucifer almost immediately caught sight of his Corvette parked behind a lantern on the other side of the street. 

It was scratched. It was dented. It was missing a side-view mirror.

Lucifer’s jaw dropped.

 “Bloody Hell!”, he swore, vey nearly turning back to give Dan – because surely it had been his fault – a piece of his mind.

In the end, he merely sighed resignedly, got in the car and persuaded the engine to start without a key. At least he didn’t have to call a cab, he thought, as he drove home.


	5. You Will Know The Truth

_Then you will know the truth,  
_ _and the truth will set you free_

(John 8:32, NIV)

\-------------~-------------

 

Lux was empty and quiet when he returned, which was hardly surprising seeing as it was early afternoon on a Monday, but Lucifer was glad nonetheless. He did not want any company right now.

The elevator seemed to take ages to descend and even longer to go back up again. Lucifer rubbed his eyes tiredly, then cursed when he smelled copper and realized his hands were still full of blood. Oh well. He was going to take a shower anyway.

Back in his apartment he first of all poured himself a Scotch and then another and then another after that. Only then did he undress, leaving a trail of bloodied clothes on his way to the bathroom.

Lucifer stepped into the huge rainforest shower, turned it on and leaned against the wall, letting the perfectly tempered water rinse away all the blood and sweat on his body. He wondered if Chloe was going to believe him now. There was no way even she could logically explain away how he had known about the situation at the school before it had been on the news or how he had made it there so fast despite leaving his convertible with them. Or how he had not only survived getting shot at multiple times at close distance, but instead overpowered the shooter and squashed the weapon to bits. That the children were bound to tell everyone about his angel wings seemed well-nigh trivial in comparison.

Those infernal wings.

„Was that what you wanted?!”, he snapped and tilted his head back to glower at the cream coloured ceiling. “Was that the reason you gave them back; so I could fly in to rescue the detective’s offspring?! So I could save Daisy’s life?! Save one little girl’s life, while others died anyway because Hell knows, it would have been too easy not to let it happen in the first place!”, he raged on. “But you don’t care, do you? No, you wanted to make a _point_ , you bloody arsehole! What was it, show me that I need them after all? Or did you me to show the detective my true self?! Force her to see me for what I really am, so she’d leave me?! What was it? What _was the point_?! _Answer me_ _!”,_ Lucifer screamed but there was no answer, of course not, there never was.

„Just take them back, you bloody stupid bastard! I don't want them!“, he gritted out. „Give them to Amenadiel, he wants them and he deserves them. But you don't care about that, Dad, do you, you never cared!“

He let his head fall back against the wet tiles.

„Why am I even tryingto talk to you, you fucking arsehole. Might as well be talking to the bloody wall“, he muttered.

What did it matter anymore? Chloe would know and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. Even without Beatrice spilling the beans about Daisy, there was more than enough evidence as it was, not to mention _all_ _the other children_. It had only now occurred to him that perhaps he should have asked the lotof them to keep their mouths shut about the healing, not just Beatrice. Lucifer had been so focused on the spawn not telling her mother about it, that he had entirely disregarded the rest of them. But of course they would be interviewed and if they all said one thing except for Beatrice? Chloe was a good cop for a reason. He banged his head against the wall.

Lucifer fervently hoped the brats hadn't seen any details. He thought his wings must have been in the way, but he wasn't sure. Now that he had time to properly think about it – even if only Beatrice had seen what he'd actually done, surely Daisy would remember having been shot, not to mention all the blood. And even if they explained the wings away as a _costume_ – he shuddered at the thought – the whole thing was bound to appear on national news. He really hadn't thought this through, had he? Save the spawn at all costs, consequences be damned.

"Bollocks."

Lucifer left the shower to get himself some Tequila. Scotch was all nice and good, but this called for the DeLéon.

Amenadiel would have his head.

 

~*~

 

It was late at night when Chloe arrived at Lux and, like so many times before, pushed the elevator button to Lucifer’s penthouse. And not for the first time she thought about how after everything that had happened to him, Lucifer really ought to put some security measures in place.

Chloe eyes were still red-rimmed and swollen and she was exhausted, but it was nothing a good night's sleep wouldn't cure. The only thing that mattered was that her daughter was alive and safe. Securely tucked into her bed, holding Ms. Alien and with Dan watching over her. Chloe felt like the worst mother in the world for not being with them, but she neededanswersand there was only one person who could give them to her.

She found Lucifer sitting at the piano, clad in suit trousers and one of his usual dress shirts. His eyes were closed as he was playing; a slow, sad tune Chloe did not recognize.

Upon hearing the elevator ping, Lucifer’s hands stilled and he turned his head. His face was that of a man waiting for the gallows: resigned and hoping it would be quick and painless.

“Ah. Detective”, he said quietly. “I didn’t expect you so soon. I thought you’d be with your daughter.” He didn’t rise to greet her.

“I was. She’s asleep now. Dan is with her”, said Chloe, slowly walking towards him. He nodded understandingly, still wearing the same sad, hopeless expression.

“Lucifer, I… I don’t know what to say. I can’t thank you enough”, began Chloe nervously, interlocking her fingers and letting go again.

 “It was nothing, Detective”, he told her.

 “No”, she said. “No, Lucifer, it was everything.”

 And then she looked at him, looked at the impossible man sitting in front of her and asked the question she had been afraid to ask all evening.

“How?”

It was all she said and it was all she needed to say.

Lucifer carefully closed the lid on his piano. She suddenly noticed how tall he was; even sitting down he was a mere head shorter than her.

“You know how”, he said, a broken man waiting for the guillotine to drop. “I’ve told you many times… Chloe.”

Chloe shook her head. It could not be true, must not be true. But she had seen him leave and knew where he had been only minutes later. She’d seen the countless bullet holes in Lucifer's shirt when he had set down Trixie, had seen the unmarked skin underneath. Chloe seen the truth, yet she refused to believe it still.

“No. No, you can’t be. You’re not… You saved Trixie”, she said desperately.

“Detective”, said Lucifer. “Please. Don’t make this harder than it has to be.” He dropped his gaze.

“Show me”, she whispered.

Lucifers' eyes were full of pain when he looked at her.

“Very well”, he said and closed them for a moment, surrendering to what was inescapable anyway.

Slowly, he stood up and walked towards his bedroom to put some distance between him and Chloe. This way her way to the elevator would be unobstructed.

"I must warn you, Detective, that what I am about to show you is… disturbing. The last person I showed… well, she didn't talk to me for two weeks and I was afraid she never would again." He looked into his glass.

"Are you sure you want this, Detective?", he asked, one last attempt to stave off the inevitable. 

"Lucifer, I just… I have to know", said Chloe, never taking her eyes off him.

Lucifer nodded and drew a shaky breath.

"Detective. I would never hurt you. Please… please remember that", he said and before Chloe could ask why he felt the need to reiterate this, Lucifer was gone. 

In his place there was a nightmare.

Cloe drew a sharp breath and clasped her hands before her mouth. Where Lucifer's face had been a mere moment ago, a horrible, bloody grimace had taken its place. Raw, charred skin stretched over a bald skull criss-crossed by scars and instead of warm brown eyes there was only fiery red. Hellfire burned deep in their sockets. Lucifer had turned into a grotesque creature, risen from the depths of Purgatory; a godless punisher, striking fear into the hearts of men.

“It’s all true”, she breathed. “It’s all true.”

Seeing was believing. In a way, Chloe had already known it when she had come here, known that there was simply no other explanation for what had happened than what Lucifer had been telling her all along: he was the Devil and this was real. 

God was real. Heaven and Hell and everything in between and Lucifer Morningstar – her partner, her best friend, her most annoying friend, her almost-lover – was really and truly the Devil himself.

Lucifer, _Lucifer_ hadn’t moved. He just stood there, waiting. Looking at her like it was the last time he’d see her.

Chloe’s mind was going blank. She saw the red, scarred lips move, but she couldn’t hear him say anything. There was a buzzing sound in her ears. Was it the rushing of her blood? Her field of vision kept narrowing, blackness creeping in from the edges and suddenly she realized she was swaying. She was going to…

 

Thump.


	6. In Peace I Will Lie Down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, I feel like the hardest part of writing this was picking which bible verses to use... Some chapters (like this) I had immediately, while for others I had like 3-5 suitable verses and had to make a decision <.<

 

_In peace I will lie down and sleep,_  
_for you alone, Lord,_  
 _make me dwell in safety._

(Psalm 4:8, NIV) 

\-------------~-------------

 

“Detective?”, asked Lucifer anxiously. His leg twitched, but he kept himself from moving towards Chloe, not wanting to scare her. The detective had turned white as a sheet, all blood drained from her face. 

“Detective, are you alright?” Chloe looked at him with glassy eyes, an unfocused, fixed stare that seemed to go right through him without recognizing anything. Without warning, she started to slowly lean forward. Then she collapsed.

“Detective!”

Lucifer rushed forward to catch her. He was too late to stop her fall entirely, but at least managed to keep her from hitting her head on the marble floor.

“Bugger", he swore, and carefully let her down. On second thought he slipped his arms under her arms and legs and picked her up to carry her to the more comfortable sofa. Lucifer laid her down gently and sat down next to her. His face had faded back into its normal humanlike state.

“Well, that could have gone a lot worse…”, he mumbled and tucked a loose strand of her behind her ear. “Then again, it could have gone a lot better, too.” Lucifer sighed. "At least you haven’t run screaming, Detective. I suppose I should count that as a success.”

He had expected a lot but not that the detective, of all people, would do such a cliché thing as _faint_. In all fairness: It had been a stressful day and he surmised that her passing out had as much to do with the spawn nearly getting shot as with his identity reveal.

He took Chloe’s hand in his own and caressed it with a thumb.

“I’m sorry”, he said. “I never meant for this to happen." Somehow it was easier to talk to her when she was out cold. With another sigh, he let go of Chloe's hand. “I think I should get you home, Detective, and… and I can only hope that come tomorrow, you will still want to talk to me. Linda came around, eventually, and I… just hope that perhaps you will be able to do the same, but if you don't… I'll understand, Chloe.”

Chloe didn’t stir, when he lifted her up again and cradled her in his arms. She didn’t move when he carried her to the lift and downstairs to the club, despite the loud music. Patrick looked at him quizzically and held his thumb and pinky up to his ear in an imitation of a phone, but Lucifer shook his head. They didn’t need a cab.

Confused or even suspicious looks followed him as he carried Chloe through the crowd, but Lucifer paid them no mind and Lux’ patrons quickly backed off when they saw his face.

He found her car in the private parking lot easily. She had her own spot.

Chloe stayed silent all the way to her home, but somewhere along the way it had turned into the calm silence of sleep. She must have been completely exhausted. Her deep, even breaths were strangely soothing to Lucifer.

 

~*~

  

Despite the late hour, lights were still on in the apartment and Lucifer hesitated before he went in. As much as he liked to mock Dan for his perceived shortcomings in the intelligence department, the man was not as stupid as he looked. Like Chloe, he would have put two and two together.

He opened the door slowly – not that he had much of a choice in this regard anyway, carrying Chloe – and brought her inside. The television was running, with the volume turned down almost to mute, but everything else was silent. He risked a look to where the TV stood and saw Dan slumped in a corner of the sofa. A lump of red blanket was cuddled up next to him.

Silently, Lucifer walked upstairs to Chloe’s bedroom. He gently placed her on the bed and took off her shoes, then pulled a blanket over her. She frowned and grunted, and he froze, but Chloe merely rolled over to hug a pillow with a sigh, before her face became slack again.

“Lucifer?”

If the devil had been able to have a heart attack. Lucifer would have had one.

 

~*~

 

“Spawn”, he said, after he’d recovered. “Shouldn’t you be asleep?” He shooed her out of the bedroom and softly closed the door behind them.

“Is Mommy okay?”, asked Trixie fearfully. She was clutching a stuffed toy.

“Yes”, said Lucifer. “She just fell asleep, nothing for you to worry about.” Only for him. “Now go back to bed.” Trixie didn’t move.

“I can’t sleep”, she said, and Lucifer was startled to see tears welling up in her eyes.

“Weren’t you just asleep on the sofa?”, he asked, but Trixie shook her head.

“No. I can't sleep. I’m scared, Lucifer. When I close my eyes …” She broke off, but she didn’t need to finish the sentence for him to know what she was talking about.

“He can’t hurt you anymore, child. Nor anyone else”, said Lucifer softly. Someone was going to burn for this.

“I know, but… Can you stay here?” Trixie sniffed.

“I… no. No, I’m sorry, child, I can’t. Your mother wouldn’t want me to stay” He looked anxiously at the bedroom door.

“Please? If you’re here, I won’t be afraid. You can leave in the morning. I won’t tell anyone!”, she pleaded with him and Lucifer agonized. It was a bad idea, but in the end Trixies’ frightened eyes won out.

“Oh, alright”, he said grudgingly. “But I’ll have to leave before anyone else wakes up.

Trixie nodded and pulled him with her to her bedroom. She huddled under her covers and Lucifer took off his shoes and sat down next to her, leaning against the headboard.

“Lucifer?”

“Hm?”

“Thank you for coming. And… thank you for saving Daisy too. I didn’t tell anyone what you did for her”, she sniffed. "And I asked the others not to say anything either." Lucifer sighed and put an arm around her.

“You’re very welcome, child. And thanks”, he mumbled and closed his eyes.


	7. Interlude

 

 _People do not despise a thief if he steals_  
_to satisfy his hunger when he is starving._  
_Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold,  
_ _though it costs him all the wealth of his house._

(Proverbs 6:30-31, NIV) 

* * *

 

Then… 

_“Hey! Those were mine!”, shouted Trixie and grabbed the now-empty bag of gummy bears Lucifer had just put on the counter. He swallowed and looked at her with the innocent eyes of someone pretending to be completely oblivious to any kind of wrongdoing._

_“Well, I'm sorry, but they're all gone now. Your mother will have to buy new ones. Preferably a bigger bag”, he said laconically and straightened his jacket. Trixie considered this._

_“Mommy only buys gummy bears once a month”, she said and gave Lucifer the hard stare she knew made him uncomfortable. He sighed theatrically and pulled a bundle of dollar notes out of his suit, selecting a twenty to hand to a grinning Trixie._

_“This should cover several months' worth of gummy bears, I believe. Don't tell your mother”, he added, just in case. Trixie beamed at him and pocketed the money faster than you could say 'gummy bears'._

_“Tell her about what, Lucifer?”, she asked innocently and Lucifer was immediately delighted._

_“Oh, very good, Child. You should consider a career as a lawyer.”_

_“Naw”, said Trixie. “I want to be president of Mars” She climbed on one of the barstools and inspected the empty gummy bear bag._

_“Which colour do you like best?”, she inquired. The serious tone suggested it was a matter of great importance to her._

_“White of course”, said Lucifer as if it were a self-evident truth._

_“I like the green ones best”, announced Trixie. Lucifer immediately scoffed at this._

_“The green ones? Clearly you are notin possession of functional taste buds, Child. Probably destroyed by all this microwave junk food your mother feeds you.”_


	8. What has your argument proven?

 

_The truth can be painful, but what has your argument proven?_

(Job 6:25, NIV) 

* * *

 

_Now…_

Chloe was startled awake when someone’s sports car roared past at seven am and seventy miles per hour.

It took her a few confused moments to gather her bearings. Why had she gone to bed in her clothes? She couldn’t even remember having gone to bed at all… Chloe blanched when her jumbled memory caught up and supplied the details of yesterday’s events. Trixie!

She jumped up like a scalded cat and ran downstairs into the living room, jolting Dan awake.

“Chloe…? When did you get back? What’s the time?”, he asked drowsily and wrestled himself up from the sofa with cracking joints.

“I don’t know, I just woke up! Is Trixie okay? Is she still in bed?”, she questioned him, lowering her voice, so she wouldn’t accidentally wake her up as well. She was met with a few disoriented blinks from Dan until his sleep-addled brain had made sense of the question.

“I suppose so. We were watching cartoons, because she was still scared and couldn’t fall asleep, but I must have at some point…”, he said anxiously. Without saying another word, he hurriedly got up and they both rushed to Trixie’s bedroom door. Chloe opened it slightly and they peered through the crack.

Trixie was fast asleep. She was cuddled up to Lucifer, who was lying on her bed in last night’s crumpled suit.

It would have been sweet, had the view not jumpstarted Chloe’s memory into filling in the missing pieces between the shooting and her getting to bed.

“Lucifer? What the hell is he doing here?”, whispered Dan, but Chloe ignored him.

She’d been to see Lucifer. Lucifer, the literal, actual _devil_ , who had woken upon them opening the door and was holding a finger up to his lips. If Chloe had paid any attention she would have noted the look on his face, but she only had eyes for her daughter. Her daughter, next to the devil.

“Lucifer. Get away from Trixie. Now”, said icily, every motherly instinct in her screaming to protect her child. Lucifer slowly disentangled himself and got up from the bed, slipping into the shoes he’d left next to it.

“Detective", said Lucifer, but Chloe cut him off.

“Get away from Trixie!”, she yelled.

“Chloe, what’s wrong?”, asked Dan. He sensed that something must have happened last night. His ex-wife had gone to, as she had put it, 'get answers', but he still didn’t know what those were.

And then Chloe's saw the expression on Lucifer’s face and the full force of what she’d just said hit her. Yes, this was Lucifer, the Devil. This was also Lucifer, her partner and friend, who had saved _her daughter’s life_. Trixie wouldn’t even be here without him and there she was, telling him to leave because she considered him a danger to her.

There was only sorrow in Lucifers’ eyes. Sorrow and pain and rejection and hurt and fear and it broke her heart. Chloe deflated. The apology was on her lips before she had even consciously thought about it.

"Lucifer, no, I'm sorry. I-", she began but before she could finish the sentence Trixie stirred and sat up in her bed

“Mommy? Lucifer, are you leaving?”, she asked sleepily, when she saw he wasn’t next to her anymore.

“I’m afraid so, Child”, said Lucifer and slipped past a bewildered Dan, who looked from one to another, not knowing what was going on.

“Lucifer, wait”, said Chloe. “Please. I’m sorry, I wasn't-” She held out a hand and dropped it again. Her eyes pleaded with him in a silent apology.

“It’s quite alright, Detective.” His hand was already on the doorknob. “I understand”, he said quietly and it was the worst he could have possibly said.

"No! No, it's not alright, Lucifer!", said Chloe desperately, but he walked out.

“Chloe! What’s going on?”, asked Dan, yet once again Chloe ignored him and darted after Lucifer. He was already gone when she opened the door.

“I’m sorry”, whispered Chloe, tears welling up in her eyes. She sat down on the sofa and buried her head in her hands. Dan sat beside her, putting his arm around her shoulder.

 

~*~

 

“Mommy, are you mad at Lucifer?”, asked Trixie anxiously.

Chloe shook her head.

“No, honey, no… Well, maybe a little bit. I don't know”, she admitted.

“Is it because he stayed here overnight when you didn’t want him to?”, asked Trixie. “Please don’t be mad at him. It’s my fault. I asked him to stay”, she explained, hugging Ms. Alien. That did get Chloe to look up.

“What? You asked him to stay, monkey?” Why had he even been here, come to think of it. The last thing she remembered was seeing his... Chloe tried not to think about it.

“He brought you home last night, after Daddy fell asleep on the couch. He carried you upstairs and then he said he was going to leave, because you wouldn’t want him to stay, but I asked him to stay, because I was so scared. Please don’t be mad at him”, she said. She looked at her parents with big, round eyes.

“I know you're here too, Daddy” Trixie looked at her father apologetically. “But you were asleep and I didn’t want to wake you. And you’re not as strong as Lucifer”, she said matter-of-factly and Dan snorted. “Lucifer has wings that can hold off bullets!”

“Wait, what?”, interjected Dan, but Trixie kept talking.

“He saved me, Mommy. When Lucifer is here, I know that nothing bad can happen to me because he’ll protect me”, she said confidently and broke into the first smile Chloe had seen on her since they had come back from the school yesterday.

Chloe held a hand up to her mouth, biting into a knuckle to fight back the mixture of sob and laugh trying to escape her.

Her daughter felt safe with the devil.

“It’s okay, monkey. I’m not mad at you or Lucifer. I was just surprised. He… he showed me something yesterday that he should have shown me a long time ago and it was a big shock for me. So I needed some space, but I'm not mad anymore“, she said, emphasizing the last part. Then she smiled at Trixie. "Now, why don’t you go wash up and get dressed and we can all go out for breakfast. How does that sound?”

“Even Lucifer?”, asked Trixie.

Chloe hesitated.

“Lucifer has to take care of some business”, she said firmly, but added: “But I’m sure we can go out with him some other time, okay honey?”

Nodding happily, Trixie ran off to get ready and Chloe turned to Dan, who looked at her with questioningly raised eyebrows, hoping to finally get the rundown from yesterday, which he did.

 

~*~

 

“Are you seriously trying to tell me that Lucifer is the real, actual Devil? With a capital D”, he asked, after Chloe had finished her account of what had transpired last night. “You’re… you’re messing with me” He laughed nervously.

Chloe shook her head.

“No, Dan, I’m not, I… Look, you were _there_. You saw the bullet holes in his shirt, didn't you?”

Dan looked away and didn't answer.

"He knew about the shooting as soon as it happened!", said Chloe.

"He could have seen it on the news", mumbled Dan.

"No, he couldn't", objected Chloe. "Dan, I watched him. He didn't have his phone out or earphones in or anything. He said he needed to take a call and then he just stood there with his eyes closed and a second later he comes running and tells me about Trixie being in danger! So unless you think he had some kind of, I don't know, radio implant or what do I know-"

"Stuff like that exists", said Dan weakly, thinking of a case he'd heard about where people had had little receivers implanted in their ears, so they could cheat on their driver's license tests.

"And he is really committed to his charade."

"Come on, Dan!", said Chloe angrily. "Even if that were true, then why didn't he tell us to check the news, unless he had reason to believe it wasn't even on there yet? And how did he get to Trixie's school so fast? It's a forty minute drive and he left maybe five minutes before we did! The cops said he'd been there for at least half an hour when we came to the school. How likely do you think this is in LA traffic?"

"Well, how likely is it that Lucifer is the Devil?", Dan hissed back.

"I know it sounds nuts, Dan! But" Chloe wrung her hands helplessly. "You… you do believe me, Dan, don't you?", she asked. Uncertainty had crept into her voice "You know I wouldn't just make up stuff like this" Dan still looked skeptical, so Chloe pressed on. "You've seen some the things he has done, Dan. It was there all along, we were just too… too blind to see it!" She looked at him imploringly and Dan threw his hands up in defeat.

“I know! Chloe. I know! I'm not stupid! I've seen the same evidence you have. And I believe you. It’s just… the devil. I mean. Wow.” Dan looked at her dumbstruck. “And he was here!”, he exclaimed, the blood draining from his face. Only now did he fully understand the implications. “With Trixie.”

“Whose life he saved”, said Chloe. “And I yelled at him. He saved her life and I yelled at him to leave her alone because I thought she was in danger.” She choked back another sob.

“He looked so hurt”, she said. “Dan, I have to go and apologize to him.”

“What?! Chloe, you just told me he’s the devil!”, Dan blurted out, remembering to keep his voice down just in time.

“Yes!”, said Chloe. “Yes, he is and I’m not going to pretend I’m not shocked Dan, I am! And his face… it was terrible. But that doesn’t mean _he_ is. He’s a good man, Dan, and you know it!”

“Technically he's not even a man - sorry.” He ducked down when she glowered at him. “All right! All I’m saying is – I don’t want him around our daughter. And yes, I know he saved her life!” Dan had to admit that if you put it like that, it didn't exactly sound fair.

“Twice”, Chloe pointed out, referring to the Malcolm Graham debacle.

“Chloe, he’s literally the Devil! Evil incarnate”, insisted Dan, although wasn't as convinced anymore.

“No. No, he’s not”, said Chloe. “He said it himself: The Devil isn’t evil, he punishes evil. Lucifer would never harm Trixie, nor would… Maze”, she trailed off, her expression going blank. If everything Lucifer had said was true, if he was indeed the devil, that meant that Maze…

Dan immediately caught up with her train of thought.

“Maze is a demon, isn’t she”, he said slowly.

“I think I need to call Linda”, said Chloe faintly.

“I’m ready! Can we go have breakfast now?”, squealed Trixie, running towards her parents, Ms. Alien in her arms.


	9. Joy to the righteous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CONTENT NOTE: Implied bloody violence

_When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers._

(Proverbs 21:15, NIV)

* * *

 

**> >Chloe knows. Meet me at Lux when you come back<<**

It was all the message said, but it was enough to make her furious.

Maze was, at heart, a predator and a predator never abandoned its prey. This was what made her such a good bounty hunter. She turned her car around anyway. Four hours until Los Angeles.

There was a first time for everything.

 

~*~

 

Lucifer was pacing in his apartment, a half-filled tumbler in hand, when his phone pinged, startling him. He had not expected to hear back from Maze so soon. Hastily, he put the glass down and grabbed his smartphone instead. 

_< <What did u do??>>_

_< <omw>>_

_< <I swear if u just lost me my roommate I'm gonna disembowel u>>_

Lucifer typed quickly.

 

**> >Later. Right now we have someone to punish<<**

_< <Do ur own damn punishing Lucifer I don't work for u anymore!>>_

**> >You will want to get your hands on this particular scumbag<<**

_< <What, someone try to kill Decker and u came to the rescue? Is that y she knows?>>_

**> > Look at the news<<**

He watched the three little dots move, then stop, then move again.

_< <Is Trix ok?!>>_

**> >Yes<<**

**> >He's in police custody<<**

_< <B there in 4>>_

_< <Don't start without me>>_

 

~*~

 

"Now what?", asked Maze when Lucifer returned from the bathroom, drying the hands he had been meticulously scrubbing for the last fifteen minutes with a fluffy white towel. Blood was so hard to get out from under your nails.

His erstwhile bodyguard was sitting spread out on the leather sofa, a glass in her hand that was filled to the brim with something Lucifer suspected came from one of the more expensive bottles on his shelf. "Trix is safe and we punished the bad guy. What happens next?"

"Nothing", answered Lucifer, tossed the towel on the counter and poured himself a Scotch. "The jig is up. The detective knows, as does her daughter. We'll deal with the fallout."

Maze rolled her eyes.

"You really didn't think this through, did you?", she groaned.

"No, Maze, I did not 'think this through', because I was too busy saving the detective's offspring's life!", Lucifer snapped at her. The glass in his hand cracked.

"Jeez. Calm down", she said. "I get that part, okay? But you didn't have to use your wings, Lucifer! You could have knocked that little shit down with your pinkie!"

"Well, _Maze_ , maybe I used them because the little shit was bloody shooting!", he answered acidly.

"Ugh, fine. So why didn't you ask the kids not to tell? You asked Trixie", Maze pointed out and tossed her hair back.

"Because I didn't think of it", Lucifer admitted grudgingly and a little embarrassed. "I was so… focused on the offspring not telling her mother anything, that I didn't pay any attention to the others." He took a sip from his tumbler, pacing up and down in his apartment.

"You didn't think of it", echoed Maze and mouthed 'unbelievable' to herself, when he wasn't looking.

"Besides, I didn't ask Beatrice not to mention the wings, I only asked her to keep quiet about the healing", Lucifer corrected her absentmindedly.

Mazes' eyes narrowed and she leaned forward.

"What healing?", she asked him in a dangerously low voice.

Lucifer, realizing mid-drink he had made another hugeblunder, waved her question away.

"Oh, it was nothing", he said casually and quickly turned his back to her, ostensibly to pour himself more Whiskey. "Considering everything else, it hardly makes a difference." He laughed nervously. "I covered a forty-minute car ride in under three minutes and then survived getting shot at with a rifle multiple times. Even the wings hardly matter at this point", he went on and downed the whole glass in one go.

" _What. Healing. Lucifer?",_ asked Maze sharply and he could practically feel her eyes bore holes into his shirt.

When he ignored her and did not answer, she pressed on: "Lucifer, did you use one of your feathers to heal a human? Did they seeyou do it?!"

"Yes, Maze, I may have treated a girl's gunshot wound", he conceded, still busying himself behind the counter and purposely avoiding her gaze and the second part of the question. "But it was nothing, really."

"What the hell were you thinking?!", Maze yelled at him and jumped up. "Lucifer, you can't just go around and use your damn wings to heal people! Humans aren't supposed to see proof of the divine-"

Lucifer scoffed at this.

"Oh, quit it, Maze, you're starting to sound like Amenadiel", he interrupted her, his voice dripping with condescension.

"Well, maybe because he's right for a change! Why the hell did you do it, Lucifer", she asked, lowering her voice.

"Because she was bloody dying, that's why!", he thundered, his eyes flaring red.

"So what?!", she shouted. "She's just a human! They all die!"

"Would you have said the same if it had been the detective's child?", asked Lucifer quietly.

Maze remained silent. She crossed her arms and lowered her head, not looking at him. Neither of them said anything.

"Why do you even care so much, Lucifer?", Maze asked at last.

"Because, Maze, sometimes even the Devil may care", he said softly.

 

~*~

 

The police never found out how Kevin Norton had vanished from his cell only to turn up as a mutilated, bloody mess hours later; speaking gibberish and curling himself into a ball as soon as anyone came within a meter of him.

When they finally got Kevin to talk, he told them how and where he had gotten his weapon and how long he had planned the assault, he explained in detail about how he had hacked into the school security system to trigger the autmatic lockdown himself, so the police couldn't get in and how many he had shot. In short, he confessed to everything.

Detective Chloe Decker might have known why, but as Crawford was under the jurisdiction of a different bureau and she was personally involved in the case, neither she nor her ex-husband ever interrogated him and by the time he had to testify, his injuries were barely visible anymore. Everyone else had agreed that since Norton was back where he belonged, there was no need to bother the detectives with such trivial details. For reasons that were anyone's guess, news about his brief disappearance never reached outside ears either.

Truth to be told, it was a mystery no one particularly cared to solve.


	10. Interlude

  _If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them._

_(James 4:17, NIV)_

* * *

 

Then…

_“Lucifer, have you eaten all of Trixie's gummy bears again?” Chloe held up an empty-looking bag accusingly._

_“I have not”, said Lucifer truthfully, the epitome of innocence. Chloe eyed him skeptically, gave the bag an experimental shake and then looked inside to find her suspicions confirmed._

_“Lucifer, have you eaten_ most _of Trixie's gummy bears again?”, she asked, emphasizing the 'most'. Lucifer's face fell slightly at having been caught._

_“Yes”, he grudgingly admitted. “But it's really all your fault, Detective, for only ever buying the smallest size possible!” Chloe sighed exasperatedly. She looked into the bag again and knit her brow._

_“Why are there only green ones left?”, she interrogated him further._

_“Well, because I didn't want to eat those, obviously”, answered Lucifer without missing a bit and tugged at his cuffs. It wasn't technically a lie._

_Chloe exhaled audibly and made a mental note to find a better hiding place for the gummy bears._


	11. Hide me in the shadow of your wings

_Keep me as the apple of your eye;  
__hide me in the shadow of your_ _wings_

(Psalm 17:8, NIV)

 

* * *

_Now..._

After three days of Lucifer refusing to answer his phone – it had always gone straight to voice mail – and not reacting to any of her messages on various channels, Chloe had racked up the courage to drive to Lux. She wasn't sure what she would find, or indeed, if she would find anything – or anyone –at all.

That Lucifer had left was her biggest fear and although she was afraid of what was waiting for her at Lux, it was not knowing, which was the worst of all.

 

~*~

 

Once again, she found Lucifer at the piano. With his eyes closed and the fingers flying over the keys, he was almost too wrapped up in his music to hear her approach and only realized he had a visitor when Chloe was already standing in front of him.

"Detective!", he startled and the music stopped abruptly. Lucifer's unshaven face looked at her in disbelief. She noticed how red and puffed up his eyes were. Several bottles and used glasses in various stages of emptiness littered both piano and floor.

"Hey", she said awkwardly. Lucifer cleared his throat.

"I didn't expect to see you again", he said quietly. "Not after… " He broke off and looked at his hands. Chloe considered pointing out that he had ignored all of her attempts to contact him, but decided against it, when she saw his face.

He was wearing the same heartbreaking look of rejection and resigned acceptance in his eyes as when he had left her apartment, like someone who was expecting to get hurt and was simply waiting for it to be over. Chloe wrapped her arms around herself and took a deep breath.

"Lucifer, I… I want to apologize to you about what I said the other night", she said. "I shouldn't have reacted like I did when I saw you with Trixie and…  I'm sorry."

Lucifer looked at her utterly baffled.

"You have nothing to apologize for, Detective" He laughed mirthlessly. "There is no reason to say sorry to the Devil."

"Yes, there is!", objected Chloe and stood up straighter. "You saved Trixie's life. If it wasn't for you she'd be-" Chloe choked, unable to finish the sentence. "I'm sorry I yelled at you. I'm sorry that I ever thought, even for a minute, that you would do anything to hurt her", she said. "It was just a bit too much, okay?" She looked at him sheepishly. "I've been an atheist all my life, Lucifer. Learning that you've been telling me the truth the whole time was… quite a shock, to put it mildly."

"It's quite alright, Detective. I understand why you wouldn't want a monster like me around your family", he said bitterly.

"No, Lucifer, it's not alright", protested Chloe protested. "It's not. You're _not_ a monster, and believe me, I've seen some."

He scoffed and shook his head.

"I'm quite literally the Devil, Detective. Father of lies, evil incarnate yadda, yadda", said Lucifer dejectedly and played a few aimless notes. "So let's not drag this out unnecessarily, shall we?"

"If you're evil, then why did you save my life? Why Trixie's?", she asked. Tears were welling up in her eyes.

Lucifer looked at her solemnly.

"I suppose", he said slowly. "Because I didn't want you to die, Detective. Or your spawn."

 

~*~

 

Although it had definitely been a lot easier when Chloe had been able to ignore most of what he said as delusional crazy talk and discard it; in the end Lucifer was still the same person he had been before. Which meant that at times he could be a complete and utter moron.

"And you don't see _any_ connection between 'saving someone's life because you care about them' and 'being a good person'?", Chloe shouted at him angrily. Anger was good. Anger dried her tears and quelled her fear.

Lucifer rearranged his fingers on the keyboard and began to play a quick piece. Finally, he lifted his head to look directly at her and said, calmly: "The Devil can't be good, Detective."

" That is total bullshit!", said Chloe, placing her palms on the piano and leaning over it, nearly causing one of the tumblers to tumble. "I don't care what you say. I know you, Lucifer. Not the Devil. You. You're my partner and my best friend and by…" She looked up apprehensively. "...and I can't believe I'm saying this, by your dad, you're _not_ a bad person!"

"But-", he tried to interject, but Chloe wouldn't let him.

"No! I've had it with you!", she snapped and it was as if a dam which had been at breaking point for months finally gave in and drowned everything in a wave of pent-up anger.

"All this time I've known you, you kept telling me how everyone blames you for every bad thing happening and how the Devil isn't evil, he punishes it! You can't just go around rejecting all the terrible things people say about you, only to constantly turn around and proclaim them a universal truth whenever it's convenient for you! 'Oh, the Devil doesn't do X, oh, the Devil doesn't do feelings!' Well maybe the Devil doesn't, but Lucifer sure does and if he stopped fixating on how apparently every single detail of his life was orchestrated by his dad then we could maybe, sometime, fucking talk about them!”

Chloe let out an irritated huff and then flushed. It had felt good, although she tried very hard not to dwell on the identity of Lucifer's father. One piece of crazy at a time.

The part of her that was aware she had literally just told off the Devil curled into a ball of red hot terror, but Chloe pushed it down resolutely. This was still Lucifer, her wonderful, obnoxious, inappropriate partner Lucifer, and in this moment right now he needed a Chair Leg of Truth. Even if it meant she herself was freaking out and screaming on the inside.

"Detective, I..." Lucifer looked at her open-mouthed. "I don't know what to say."

"Good", said Chloe. "Then don't say anything and just listen." Once the snowballs had started rolling, there was no stopping them and the only option was to keep going and hope they didn't turn into an avalanche on the way.

"I'm still your friend, okay? I'm not saying I don't care you're the Devil, because that would be a lie and I'm not lying to you. It's a lot to take in, but I'm trying okay? My whole world has been turned upside down, so cut me some slack", she said and threw her hands in the air. "I mean. God." Chloe laughed. "And angels. Heaven is real. Hell is real."

She had to sit down, her knees having gone weak all of a sudden.

Lucifer watched her apprehensively, not sure if he was allowed to speak again. When Chloe didn't continue he said cautiously: "Alright, Detective. I must say you are taking this way better than Doctor Linda." He poured himself a new glass of Scotch. "She didn't talk to me for two weeks! I thought I'd broken her!", he lamented and downed it right away.

Chloe and Linda had already had a discussion about this and Chloe privately thought that 'broken' had probably been an accurate description, if only temporarily.

It was oddly comforting for Chloe to hear the casual way he was speaking about upending their mutual friend's world, naturally managing to make it all about himself again. Lucifer was being Lucifer. She had missed him.

"Oh, would you like a drink as well, Detective?", asked Lucifer, as if suddenly remembering his manners. He had broken into a wide, boyish grin and was already halfway to the bar before Chloe could politely decline.

Lucifer shrugged and happily poured himself another Scotch. Chloe watched him fascinatedly. Of course she had known he could hold his liquor and often drank strong alcohol as if it were water, but now that she knew 'supernatural metabolism' was a real thing and not a humble-brag, she saw it in a different light.

"Dan knows too", she mentioned, her eyes following the movements of his hands. Lucifer froze.

"And how is Detective Dou- how is Daniel dealing with it?", he asked, trying to appear nonchalant and failing miserably.

"I think he'll be okay", said Chloe. "Eventually. I suppose it would help if he could talk to Linda as well. I'll tell him." She sighed. "This is so weird", she mumbled to herself.

Lucifer nodded.

"How is the spawn?", he asked and sat down on the barstool next to her, though she noticed he kept more distance than usual.

"Trixie's… alright, as far as you can be alright after what she's been through", she told him, glad for the change of topic. " During the day, she's fine but at night" Chloe shook her head. "She has nightmares. She wants Maze to come back and watch over her. Or you. She keeps talking about your bullet-proof wings", she added. Wings. That was another thing.

"I asked Maze not to come to your house for the time being", said Lucifer. "I wasn't sure…" The unspoken question hung heavily in the air.

"I'm not sure either", said Chloe quietly. "She is a demon. I trust her. I trust a demon with my daughter. And I'm still freaking out. Can I just freak out for a bit?"

Lucifer chuckled.

"Detective, you may freak out as much as you want. I'd be happy to answer any questions you have."

"I don't even know where to start", Chloe blurted out. "Linda covered the basics – you know, God", she laughed awkwardly, "– But there are still SO many things I want to know! Are you really several thousand years old?"

"Yes. But don't ask me the exact number, you lose count after a few millennia and the humans keep changing the calendars."

Chloe stared at him open-mouthed.

"Okay", she said. "Okay."

It was probably better not to think about this too hard. Chloe thought about more questions she wanted to ask.

"Do you really have wings?" She frowned, suddenly remembering what he had told her so often. "Wait – didn't you say you cut them off?"

"Yes. They've grown back, unfortunately", he explained. "Another one of Dad's mind games."

Chloe filed this statement away for later perusal. She hesitated before she posed the next question, unsure if this was a path she wanted to go down. In the end Chloe's natural curiosity won out and she asked: "Can I see them? Your wings."

Lucifer faltered, but then he nodded.

„Very well, Detective“, he said and set his Scotch down before he stood up. „I suppose if anyone has earned it, it's you.“

“Lucifer, no, you don't have to if you don't want to-”, she said hurriedly but he held up a hand.

 “I know I don't have to.” He smiled at her; a genuine smile. “I want to. I'm… glad it's all out in the open now and I'd be happy to show you.”

Unthinkingly adjusting his cufflinks, he took a careful step back. Hell was so much more spacious. His eyes briefly met hers before he turned his back to her, letting his arms fall loosely to his sides.

"Ready?", he asked.

"Don't you have to take your shirt off?", Chloe asked in bewilderment and then promptly blushed. Lucifer predictably smirked and she prepared for the inevitable lewd comment.

„I don't, actually. It's all a bit complicated but let's just say that they exist on a different plane of existence and can pass through fabric. Though I am of course more than happy to undress for you, Detective, if that's what you desire. Shall I take off my trousers too?", he asked innocently and his hands, which had somehow already unbuttoned his shirt, speedily moved to his belt.

"No thanks", said Chloe sweetly and he pouted. "Shirt will do."

If she was going to see angel wings, she might as well see them attached to Lucifer's muscular back instead of magically protruding from his vest.

"Well then. Here we go", said Lucifer and flexed his now-naked shoulders.

There was a soft 'fwump' sound and Chloe drew a sharp breath when they unfurled; large, white and magnificent. A pair of glorious, brilliant wings had appeared on Lucifer's back, their size almost spanning half the room and Chloe couldn’t think. She could only behold.

Her fingers clasped tightly around the tumbler in her hand she was gazing in awe at the pure white feathers growing out of Lucifer's lightly tanned skin, their divine glow chasing away the shadows of the night.

It was in this instant she knew that no matter what else Lucifer had in store for her: He would never, _ever_ cease to amaze her.

 

~*~

 

„They're so beautiful“, she whispered and stepped closer. Lucifer snorted and shook his head.

„I’m afraid I’ll have to disagree with you on that“, he said bitterly. “They are nothing more than another one of Dad’s mind games."

Chloe ignored him and came closer. Without consciously noticing she was doing it, she put her glass down to have both hands free.

Standing right behind him, she lifted her hand, but stopped just short of touching.

„Can I touch them?“, she asked and regretted it almost immediately when he tensed up.

„I'm sorry“ Chloe quickly drew back her hand and shook her head. „Forget I asked, I know it's painful for you-“, she stammered but Lucifer cut her off.

„No. It's fine, Detective. Go on“, he said quietly, relaxing his back and shoulders, the wings drooping slightly.

„Really?“ She wanted to be sure.

„Never lying. You know that... Chloe“, he said wryly and took a swig from his scotch.

„No. You don't“, she said sincerely and, once more, reached out towards Lucifer's back.

“It’s not like I mind having a beautiful woman touch my naked body, Detective”, he said.

Trust Lucifer to ruin an intimate moment with a sexual joke because he was incapable of dealing with any kind of emotional vulnerability.

Chloe held out her hand again and this time her fingers brushed against the brilliant white feathers of his right wing. Lucifers' eyes fluttered shut at the light touch.

“Careful with the primaries”, he said. “Their tips can be rather...sharp!” He almost gasped the last word when Chloe slowly ran a hand along the upper ridge. Its very tip was covered in adorably tiny, soft, fluffy feathers. The wing itself was unexpectedly warm. She could feel the slight movements of muscles under her fingers and only now did it sink in that they were an actual, whole, additional _limb_ , alive and moving. To think Lucifer had cut them off, just like that.

“Primaries?”, she asked, when his words reached her with a delay, and knit her brow. She didn't know a thing about the anatomy of feathers. Were they numbered? The feathers slightly lower were stiffer than Chloe would have expected, although when she ran her hand in the direction of growth they still felt smooth as silk. The limb tensed but she could feel Lucifer slowly relax as her hand moved along the wing.

“The long ones at the bottom”, explained Lucifer. His eyes were closed, his head tilted back slightly and he was pressing the scotch glass to his chest.

Chloe lifted her other hand as well, touching the left wing and mimicking the motions she was making on the right one. She leisurely stroked both wings down from top to bottom.

“I thought they would be softer”, she whispered, her voice full of wonderment. “I mean, no, they _are_ soft, really, really soft, they feel like a cloud but... the larger ones are kind of stiff” She laughed. “I didn't know that.” When her brain caught up, she shot Lucifer a look but he didn't comment on her choice of words, merely stood there with his lips slightly ajar before he said: “Go deeper.” His voice was uncharacteristically raspy.

Chloe complied. Her mouths formed a barely audible 'oh' when she went beyond the outer layer of flight feathers and reached the fine down underneath. She had never touched anything so soft in her life. Not in her wildest dreams could she have imagined the feeling. Chloe dug her fingers into the velvety magnificence and ran them through the feathers from where Lucifers' wings met his back to as far as her arms span permitted it, unthinkingly nuzzling against his back.

She slowly dragged her hands back again and traced where the wings met his shoulder blades. Lucifer winced and drew a sharp breath. Chloe startled and pulled her hands away instantly.

“I'm sorry”, she breathed. “Did I hurt you? Do you want me to stop?”

“No”, Lucifer blurted out. “You haven't hurt me, Chloe”, he said softly and exhaled audibly. She noticed that his breathing was coming ragged and uneven and hoped that he had told her the truth. Perhaps his wings had been injured in the shooting after all. Lucifer swallowed. “Nobody has touched me like this in a very long time. It's... I'm sorry” He abruptly folded his wings back into whatever pocket dimension he stored them in and rolled his shoulders. “I think that’s enough for tonight." Lucifer quickly downed the rest of his drink, before donning his shirt again.

"Will I see you at the precinct tomorrow?”, he asked hesitantly and, perhaps, hopefully. He did not turn to look at her, focusing instead on buttoning up his shirt.

“Oh, uh, yeah. Sure”, said Chloe slightly dazed. "Back to work."

“Splendid”, said Lucifer and even though she couldn't see his face, she heard the relief in his voice. "I'm glad you still want to work with me, Detective. I value our friendship very much and losing it would have been… " He trailed off, still not turning around.

Chloe stepped up to him and put a hand on his arm.

"Hey", she said and smiled at him. "Devil or not – you're still the best partner I ever had."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In all honesty, I'm not really satisfied with this chapter. I actually had the wing reveal bit written before the rest of the story. It was sort of a random standalone without any background, but when I started Innocent's Prayer I reworked it slightly because it thought it would go well in there. Well, in the end it turned out rather wingporn-y *delicate cough* so I removed those parts on the grounds that it wasn't a good fit with the sad/melancholic tone of the rest. But then the chapter was too short and felt like it was lacking something... *sigh* I don't know. What do you people think - should I have ended on "It was in this instant she knew that no matter what else Lucifer had in store for her: he would never, ever cease to amaze her." or do you like the wingporn-y bit? :-/


	12. All may go well

_Dear friend,_  
_I pray that you may enjoy good health_  
_and that all may go well with you,_  
_even as your soul is getting along well._  
(3 John 1:2, NIV)

* * *

  

“Yes, he's the Devil. The fallen angel. The Morningstar. But he is also just... Lucifer", Linda continued, in her therapist voice. "You know? The man who's constantly adjusting his cufflinks. Currently one of the most powerful beings on Earth and he's fussing about his suits! Except when he's not, because it matters and then he couldn't care less.”

“Yeah, but he always complains afterwards”, Chloe interjected. “Loudly. Until something shiny distracts him; usually a woman's naked skin. Or a guy's. Or until someone hands him a drink.”

Linda laughed and said: “Like an alcoholic magpie.”

They both snorted into their drinks, Linda having opened a bottle of red wine as soon as Chloe had told her the reason for her visit. 

“Did you know he's scared of grasshoppers?”, she asked Chloe.

“What? No”, said Chloe. “You can't be serious! Can you?” She squinted at the smirking Linda, trying to discern if the therapist was making fun of her.

“I'm serious!”, insisted Linda, then leaned forward and lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Scared of grasshoppers. And locusts and cicadas and everything else in this family.”

Chloe raised her eyebrows disbelievingly over the rim of her wineglass.

“It's the hopping. It's unpredictable and that completely unnerves him”, explained Linda.

“You're messing with me!”, said Chloe, chuckling and shaking her head.

“I swear, I'm not making this up! The Devil is scared of grasshoppers. Wait” Linda rummaged through her purse searching for her phone. “I think I might have a picture somewhere” She moved over to sit next to Chloe on the couch and started to swipe through her gallery.

“Ha! Found it”, she exclaimed and turned the phone, so Chloe could see the slightly blurred image. “There he is, Lucifer Morningstar, Satan, Beelzebub, owner of LA's most elite night club – standing half-naked on a chair in my living room and calling for help because there is a _grasshopper_ sitting on the floor!” Chloe guffawed and only barely held herself back from spraying red wine everywhere, starting to cough instead.

Linda waited patiently until Chloe had put her glass on the table and gotten herself under control again.

“Show me again”, she said teary-eyed. Linda held out the phone and Chloe broke into another hysterical fit. The expression on Lucifer's face was priceless.

“That's the grasshopper by the way”, said Linda and zoomed in on a tiny dark smudge on the light wooden floor. “Lucifer almost stepped on the poor guy. When he saw what it was he panicked and jumped on a chair! And then he couldn't get down again because”, Linda had to stop talking for a moment because the memory had her periodically breaking into fits of giggles “because the terrible, terrible grasshopper was between him and the door!”, she finished and they both broke into another giggling fit.

“I have to have this picture”, said Chloe after Linda had put the phone away and they had calmed down a bit.

“You already do”, said Linda smugly. “I just posted it in the group.”

“No! Tell me you didn't!”, exclaimed Chloe. “Linda! Maze will never let him live this down!”

“Eh, he'll survive!”, said Linda, waving her hand in a gesture of complete non-concern, and poured them both more wine.

For a while, the women remained silent. Then Linda settled back into her own chair, scrutinizing Chloe.

“How are you holding up?”, she asked, cradling her wine glass.

Chloe's expression became somber again and she took her time to answer the question, resting her own glass against her lips without drinking.

“I think, I’m doing okay”, she said at last. “It’s just… how do you cope with that knowledge, Linda? How do you cope with… knowing it’s all _real_?”

She looked desperately at Linda, who did not answer right away and looked out of her office window instead, contemplating the question like one might contemplate a difficult math equation. At last, she turned back to look at Chloe.

“Honestly?", she asked. "With difficulty."

Linda sighed and looked into her glass.

"I admit, I had a really hard time and I don't know if I would have gotten out of it, if Maze hadn't been so insistent. I'm glad she was, but it did take a while.” She took a sip from her wine. “It took me weeks to get over the initial shock and even longer until things were more or less back to normal. Whatever the new normal is.” She swished the red liquid around. “But it gets better. Sometimes it still hits me. I mean, God? The _Devil_? I thought it was all poppycock _”_ The therapist laughed nervously. “At first that was all I could think of – I only saw Lucifer and Maze as _what_ they were, but over time…” Linda searched for the right words. “Over time I came to realize that it wasn’t the same as _who_ they were. Are They are people with both good _and_ bad qualities, people who have… flaws and quirks like the rest of us and who I have gotten to know and care about. Does that help?”, she asked.

Chloe nodded slowly.

“Yeah. Yeah, it… does, actually. I mean it's kinda hard to be scared of someone who steals gummy bears from your 8-year-old.” Linda guffawed, causing Chloe to blush and cross her arms. “It's not like he couldn't buy his own!”, she complained.

“I know the problem”, said Linda, who was clearly highly amused by this. “Once I made the mistake of buying a two-pound bag and leaving it somewhere where Lucifer could find it. He made it through the whole bag during two episodes of 'House'!”

“Wait, you were watching TV with Lucifer?”, asked Chloe and chortled.

“Occasionally. After we... you know”, admitted Linda and blushed. “It was mostly to entertain him while he was giving me foot rubs, because I was too tired for conversation” She looked fondly into the distance and drank from her wine. “Those were amazing foot rubs.” Chloe smiled wanly and took a rather large swig from her glass. All of a sudden, she remembered something.

“Did he eat all of them? All of the gummy bears?”, she asked.

“What do you mean?” Linda was confused. “Yes, the whole two-pound bag, like I said.”

“He didn't leave the green ones?”, asked Chloe, wanting to be absolutely clear on this front.

The therapist shook her head.

“No, he ate all of them”, she confirmed. “I don't think he cared much about the color” Linda cocked her head and her eyes went to the ceiling as she tried to remember. “Hang on, I think he once said he preferred the yellow ones. Or was it the white ones?” She shrugged. “Anyway, why do you ask?”

Lindas' eyes widened, when she noticed the tears on her friend's face. These were not the tears of laughter from before.

“Chloe, what's wrong? Are you okay?”, she asked cautiously and leaned forward, debating inwardly whether Chloe needed her friend right now or her therapist.

“Yeah, fine. I'm sorry. I just got a bit emotional”, Chloe assured her, though her voice was wavering slightly.

“No need to apologize. That's what you're here for”, said Linda emphatically. “What was it that upset you? Did I say something?”

“No. I mean yes. It's about the gummy bears”, said Chloe. With a chuckle, she wiped the tears from her eyes and told Linda about the gummy bears.

“Can you believe it?", asked Chloe and couldn't help but grin. "The Devilis stealing all my daughters' gummy bears. Except for the ones he knows she likes best."

Linda looked into the distance for a moment.

"Actually, I can", she said and laughed.

"Lucifer is – fundamentally – a kind person", she continued and her expression turned more serious again. "He cares, even if he doesn't know how to show it or deal with any of the emotions. At all", she added wryly. "But he's trying. I know it's hard to accept, Chloe, but pretty much everything we have ever learned about the devil is wrong.”

"Yes, well, the bible certainly never mentioned a fear of grasshoppers. Who knows what else they got wrong?", said Chloe and reached for her wine, a tiny smile playing around her lips. “Hey, wasn't an invasion of locusts one of the biblical plagues?", she asked, recalling some of the things she had read after Lucifer's revelation and two nights' worth of religious research. Her smile widened until it was almost a grin.

 “It was!”, said Linda and they amused themselves imagining Lucifer's reaction to a plague of locusts. “Do you think he was there? Maybe that's where this fear comes from”, she pondered, resolving to find out at the earliest opportunity.

“We can ask him about it”, said Chloe and then smirked. "But I bet you a hundred bucks he'll never admit it. It'll be", and here she lowered her voice and made a decent attempt at mimicking Lucifer's, " 'Preposterous! The Devil isn't afraid of grasshoppers, Detective! Now, I will admit that I happen to have a certain… aversion to this particular group of insects, but I most certainly do not _fear_ them. That would be ridiculous.' "

After the ensuing laughing fit had ceased (it had taken a while), Chloe held up her glass.

“Cheers, Linda. And thank you.”

“That’s what friends are for”, said Linda and clinked it. “Cheers.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: LENGHTY WING RAMBLING AND NOTHING ELSE
> 
> Thank you all for the lovely comments! <3 I'm afraid I'm going to dissect the wing scene some more xD Someone pointed out that Lucifer would have no qualms about telling Chloe if sth was turning him on, but the wings always seemed like a special case to me, since he has such complicated & conflicted feelings about them. What I was going for is that while wing touching definitely *is* sexual, it's at the same time something extremely (emotionally) intimate as well. Lucifer isn't sure himself how to feel about this and hates the thought of his wings giving him pleasure in any way. And even though he longs for Chloe to keep going, he doesn't want to make her uncomfortable (especially after she just found out) with the knowledge that wing touching is in fact both a very close, intimate act and a highly sexual one. He would have needed to shut that thing down immediately, but now it's kinda too late (and his brain is turning into a happy puddle of goo) and it would be awkward, not to mention that he's a bit embarrassed about having such a strong reaction. He is supposed to make other people feel that way, dammit! So like always he just gets weird about stuff and hopes Chloe doesn't catch on...
> 
> I don't know if I was able to convey all that in half a chapter though. It's always easier in your own head! xD And of course everything is highly context dependent! When I wrote the scene on its own I definitely intended it to lean more towards sensual/sexual, but in this particular story, in light of everything that happened before, it makes much more sense to read it as the moment of emotional vulnerability, trust and closeness that it is and focus on this aspect rather than the physical one.
> 
> In any case I'm happy the scene apparently came across way better than I thought! It's nigh impossible to evaluate things objectively as the author. You're set on seeing things a certain way because this is how you've written them or because of additional background info you didn't end up using that the readers don't have or the things you haven't written yet influencing you, so yay for feedback! 
> 
> TL; DR: It was always intended to have both a sexual implication *and* be a moment of intense emotional intimacy (hence why poor Luci doesn't know how to handle it), but it's absolutely up to your own interpretation which part weighs heavier :) Anyway, I'm super pleased y'all seemed to like it and thought it fit!! (For the more wingporn-y inclined among you, there might be more to come... hehe)


	13. Epilogue

_Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!_  
(John 8:45, NIV)

* * *

 

 _Two weeks later…_  

 

> THE MIRACLE OF CRAWFORD – CHILD'S GUNSHOT WOUND HEALED BY ANGEL?
> 
> **"I was shot in the belly and it hurt so much. I thought I was going to die and then I woke up in the hospital and they said nothing's wrong, that I was full of blood but I didn't have a wound at all!",  Daisy Granger (8), told the LA Times. "My friend said an angel saved me"**
> 
> Some of the children insisted their classmate had been healed by the man who saved them from the shooter, while others disputed this claim, saying that 'The Hero of Crawford', as the press calls him, only stopped the bleeding. Both the hospital and the Granger family have declined further commentary. 
> 
> **"Daisy was bleeding so much when he bent over her. I didn't see what he did, because his wings were in the way, but when he put them away Daisy wasn't hurt anymore" (Trisha S., 9)**
> 
> **"He had wings! He was an angel" (Paolo M., 8)**
> 
> Most likely the unknown stranger had been wearing military grade armour as well as large pair of fake wings, presumably to intimidate the shooter and trick him into thinking he was facing an actual angel. Experts agree that it is likely that the wings themselves were made from a bullet resistant material – an elaborate and costly, yet possible feat.
> 
> (…)
> 
> However, evidence of this has yet to be found and many people indeed believe in divine intervention. The incident has caused a notable increase in church attendance in California, with many citing 'renewal of their faith' as a reason.
> 
> (…)
> 
> Despite a number of eye witnesses as well as extensive video footage from outside the school, the identity of the mysterious Hero is still unknown. Although bystanders have allegedly recognized the man coming out of the school as a minor L.A. celebrity, who wishes to remain unnamed, other credible sources have vehemently denied this and the claims are widely regarded as false. Officer P. Simmons of the LAPD, who had interviewed the mystery man, described him as the _'_ **tall, dark, handsome type. Wore a suit'.** AsSimmons goes on to explain, the police **"never got his name. He gave us a short account of what happened but then he didn't say anything. Dude was like, in shock, so we didn't press him. Ah mean, no one thought he'd just walk off like that! He just said 'Excuse me, I need to go' – had a British accent by the way –  and then he went outside with the little girl holding his hand and when we wanted to question him again, he was just gone! Weird right? But it was all chaos, y'know? And the girl didn't look scared. She wanted to go with him, so I didn't question it. Think she knew him."**
> 
> As of today, none of the children involved have confirmed this happening and the identities of both the girl in question and her savior are still hotly disputed. So far no one has come forward to claim either and it appears as if the Angel of Crawford may have to stay one of many unsolved mysteries."

 

"Just… _How_?", asked Dan and put down the newspaper. He looked utterly baffled. "There were twenty children in there and the teacher!" 

"Well, that's the problem, isn't it", said Chloe cynically, turning a page in her own issue. "Kids. They make stuff up." She sipped from her coffee, then bit into a lemon bar. "Look at page three: They're already trying to explain it away with some kind of bullet proof costume and fake cosplay wings."

"Bullet proof cosplay wings", echoed Dan. "Against an AR-15 right in front of you? For real? At that range I doubt you'd survive even with hard armour, never mind a soft vest. How is anybody buying into this?!"

Chloe raised her eyebrows almost up to her hairline.

"Do I really need to remind you how much we've been explaining away for the past year and a half, Dan? People see what they wanna to see." She absentmindedly fingered her bullet necklace. Dan snorted, but had to concede this. 

"What do they say about Daisy Granger?", he asked.

"Was only mildly injured."

"And all the blood?", Dan asked incredulously.

"Oh, I didn't get to that part yet", said Chloe. "But I'm guessing something about it only being a graze hitting an artery in an unfortunate spot. Looking terrible, but not actually life-threatening, once mystery man stopped the bleeding. Something like that." She took another bite from a lemon bar.

"Did Lucifer ever explain what he did?" 

"No and neither did Trixie."

"Guess we'll never find out", said Dan mildly. After all the revelations of the past two weeks, uncovering a miraculous healing was fairly low on the list of his priorities. "Angel of Crawford'", he read aloud. "Man, he must hate that."

"You have no idea", said Chloe, in the exasperated tone of someone working the complaints department of customer support.

"How did he even manage to keep his name out of the papers? Well, mostly", wondered Dan, referring to the rumors and speculations still circulating through the tabloids. Even Lucifer hadn't managed to quell those entirely. 

"Well, he never did give his name to the police", explained Chloe. "The rest was Charlotte and Favours", she said laconically and Dan nodded, as if this were explanation enough, which, at least when it came to Lucifer Morningstar, it was.

"Wonder how many he had to use for that one", he said.  

"Considering how much he's whining about it: a LOT", said Chloe and tipped back her mug, to get the last drops of her coffee.

"Wait 'till he hears about the increase in church attendance", said Dan and sipped from his own coffee. "Man, the irony's killing me." He chuckled and went back to his paper, though he decided the sports section was a better use of his time.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I'm ready for the stones to be thrown *ducks*  
> That was it. I know a lot of you won't be happy that I didn't really address the "a whole classroom of kids saw Lucifer's wings and one of them should be dead but isn't" angle and am in fact kind of glossing over it, so I at least wanted to give you my reasons. 
> 
> a) For the most part it's because it's not what I wanted to focus on. I wanted to write Lucifer being badass, Lucifer and Trixie and Chloe finding out, so this is what I did. (sorry for not giving you some Maze & Trixie though)
> 
> b) Explaining things away is literally what's happening the entirety of the series! Lucifer pushes a man through a glass door with basically a flick of his wrist (caught on video), drives a man insane and regularly holds up 100kg dudes one-handedly. Not to mention his injuries – granted, we're never actually shown how fast they heal but common sense would dictate it's pretty damn fast. In the finale of S03 it looks as if his wings may have healed or almost healed already. Lucifer has difficulty folding them back but that could have been his emotional state, he's fighting as if they were at least mostly fine.  
> Also, pretty much all of Maze. 
> 
> c) I honestly don't think it's all that unrealistic. Unless you had been there (or were a person of extraordinary faith) - would you believe in an angel? Or, when no more evidence of the divine is forthcoming, dismiss it as an elaborate show, an illusionist or simply one of life's many mysteries? Sure, it would keep the media busy for a while and fuel the conspiracy theories but after a few months with no new information or the next shooting (whichever happens faster) public interest would wane and the Angel of Crawford would become nothing more than fodder for an X-Factor remake. 
> 
> Other than that, yes I could have written more about Chloe & Lucifer in the aftermath of the Grand Reveal (TM) but I'm satisfied with things as they are (and tbh I'd be more interested in exploring Ella's reaction because she'll figure it out!). The way their relationship(s) will change and develop now belongs in a different story and not this one. This one was about Lucifer being a bamf and it ends here. I hope you enjoyed it despite the lack of more Deckerstar :-)


End file.
